Name Change At Agency To Remove 'R' Word

ALBANY — For the second time in a year, New York legislators are considering changing the name of one of the only state agencies in the country with “retardation” still in its title.
The term, once viewed as clinical and neutral, is now considered so demeaning that leading advocacy groups in the state have promoted a campaign against it and have dropped the word from their own titles.
And yet, the letterhead of New York’s chief caretaking agency still reads “Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.” Of the dozens of states that once used “retardation” in an agency or department title, only New York and Rhode Island still do.
Given the activism against the term here, it was a surprise last year when a proposal by Gov. David A. Paterson to change the office’s name to the “Developmental Disabilities Services Office” that had passed the State Senate was pulled before reaching the Assembly floor. And the protesters who blocked it were some of the very people who have worked hardest to secure the rights of those labeled “retarded.”